"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in
its net of wonder forever."—Jacques Cousteau

Aug. 17-20 Cayuga Lake Vacation

"The Lake....where families go to make memories." -Author Unknown
We spent this year's last family lake vacation at a nice house just south of Seneca Falls on Cayuga Lake. The weather was beautiful, but a bit too windy to spend time on the boat riding on the raft...no problem we found other things to do. We spent our first full day taking the boat through part of the Cayuga–Seneca Canal. This part of the New York canal system connects the Erie Canal to Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake. It was built in 1818. Since we were already in Cayuga Lake we took everyone through C2 and C3 that leads to the town of Seneca Falls. These locks are a set of locks called a staircase or flight. We were lifted up a total of 49' from the Seneca River to Van Cleef Lake. Check out this old blog post to see how a lock works. We wandered around town a little and then had lunch before we headed back to the house.

The house
This house had a great movie and game room above the garage. The perfect place for a family movie night.
The kids get to the marina around lunch each time we rent a house. So we have a little time to fill before we can check in. This time we had lunch on the boat then rode bikes along the trails by the marina and played in the park.
After playing we stopped at the Sheldrake Point Winery to enjoy a little wine and a beautiful day.
We spent a lot of time at the house just hanging out together, relaxing, playing games, eating and celebrating Hattie's 4th birthday.
The view from the front porch was nice in the evening and in the morning.
On our way to Seneca Falls.
These boards are at each lock to inform boaters of their elevation and how far it is to the next lock.
Heading into lock C2. It lifted us up 24.5'.
Once inside we put a line around a cable so we could stay close to the side of the lock.

Once inside and ready the Lock Master closes the door and the water begins to fill the lock.
Going up!
Once we were through the two locks we were in Van Cleef Lake and right in the heart of Seneca Falls.
Everyone had a great time on the way home.
Graham was the captain most of the way back.
Our second full day was beautiful...but very windy. Kyle and Graham explored in the kayaks before we tried to have fun on the runabout. It was just too rough, so we played at home.
The waterfront was pretty and we had plenty of room to play, but it wasn't very nice for swimming. Luckily the weather was cool and we really didn't want to swim. 
Our traditional last night fire and s'mores. It's our way of saying goodbye to summer.

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